1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to wireless communications, and more particularly to systems, methods and computer program products for facilitating communications between private branch exchanges and mobile devices.
2. Related Art
In today's technological environment, Short Message Service (SMS) or “text messaging” is the most common used data application in the world—more so than email! That is, it has been estimated that as far back as 2008, over 4.1 trillion text messages were sent. And, as far back as 2006, text messaging was an US$80 billion global industry. Currently over 4 billion texts a day are sent in the United States. Some sources state that there are approximately 2.4 billion active users of text messaging which represents 74% of all mobile telephone subscribers.
The popularity of SMS is not surprising given the growth of the mobile industry as a whole. In 2010, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), there were 5.3 billion mobile subscribers which represent approximately 77% of the world's population. In contrast, there were only 1.2 billion fixed telephone lines in the world during the same time period. The use of text messaging, however, remains largely personal. Such messages are typically “consumer-to-consumer” and are of a personal nature. That is, an overwhelming majority of text messages sent involve an individual subscriber sending a short (e.g., up to 160 7-bit characters) and personal message to another individual subscriber.
Businesses, on the other hand, who typically employ private branch exchanges (PBXs), have not realized the full power and reach of SMS. PBXs, which often incorporate telephones, fax machines, modems, and the like, make connections among the internal telephones of a private organization—usually a commercial business—and also connect them to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) via trunk lines. As of today, text messaging between businesses and mobile subscribers have mostly involved content delivery and entertainment services (e.g., TV contest voting). Yet, according to the ITU, text messages are read on average within four minutes compared to 48 hours with email, and while 65% of email is spam, less than 10% of SMS is spam. This presents significant new avenues for businesses to communicate with existing and potential customers for increased revenue opportunities.
Given the foregoing, what is needed are systems, methods and computer program products for facilitating the communication of business-related messages from PBXs to wireless devices.